Gideon Ezeh, a Nigerian data analyst, said in an interview with The Punch that he is a graduate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and works with both an international and a local company.
He explained that on May 7, 2025, he left Abuja around 1 p.m. on a Qatar Airways flight to Dallas to visit his wife, with a stopover in Doha. He said he arrived at the airport around 10 p.m. after an eight-hour journey.
He stated that he was traveling with two bags, including his laptop bag and another containing his clothes and a mannequin head he had purchased in Abuja to learn hair plaiting. According to him, he had been practicing with tutorials on TikTok and carried the mannequin in his hand luggage to continue learning while abroad.
He added that during airport screening, officials noticed the mannequin head and questioned him about it. He explained what it was, but they later claimed something might be inside it. He said he was unaware of any such contents, after which they carried out a swab test and screened it for narcotics.
When asked what the airport officials discovered after the test, Gideon Ezeh said that the result came out negative. However, he explained that the first set of officials asked him to wait as they needed to escalate the matter to security for further checks using more advanced machines, as they believed they had detected a dense area inside the mannequin head on their screen.
He stated that he agreed, and security personnel were called in. According to him, the officer examined the item and asked questions about where he purchased the mannequin. He told them it was from a popular market in Nigeria and also said he did not know what was inside the head.
He added that they decided to conduct another round of checks, and he consented. After the additional screening and tests, the result still came out negative.
He further stated, “It was while they were questioning me about where I was coming from and where I was going that I told them I was travelling to visit my wife in the US. They persistently asked where I was coming from, and I told them Nigeria. Then one of the officials made a statement.”
“He said, ‘Nigeria, too much problem.’ Immediately he made that statement, everything changed—from routine checks on my items to suspicion that I was carrying narcotics. So, they immediately escalated the matter to the head at the airport.”
He said that among the airport officials, there was a white woman with a European accent, while the others were Arabs speaking Arabic, which he could not understand. He explained that when the issue was escalated to her, she returned with additional officials who surrounded him, making it appear as though he was a major drug suspect, and attracting the attention of other people at the airport.
He added that the woman said they needed to open the mannequin to check what was inside and explained that it would have to be torn open. He told them he had no objection.
He said the situation became uncomfortable for him, so he allowed them to proceed with whatever checks were necessary, trusting the process, and maintaining that he was certain the mannequin head did not contain any drugs, as he had purchased it from a busy market like Maraba…….See More
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